So many diets are available today, and they all have a different approach to help you lose weight and become more healthy. These diets seem to add to the confusion surrounding fat. Some recommend that you eat lots of fat; others recommend that you avoid it entirely. It's time to demystify saturated fat intake.

Uses for Fat

Your body needs fat. Fat is an excellent source of energy, since it contains more than twice the amount of calories per gram that carbohydrates and protein do. This makes it ideal for storing calories. More than that, your body uses fat as an important part of your cell membranes. It helps to control what goes into and out of your body's every cell. Cholesterol -- a waxy, fat-like substance in many foods containing fat -- is an essential starting point to make several hormones and to use vitamin D.

Sources

Fat occurs in many foods. Saturated fats are most common in meat and dairy products -- beef, chicken, pork, veal, milk, butter and cheese -- but coconut, coconut oil, palm oil and cocoa butter also contain saturated fat. Lowfat dairy usually contains some saturated fat, but at much lower levels. Many foods high in saturated fat are also high in cholesterol, which can negatively impact your health.

Health Concerns

A high saturated fat intake raises your blood cholesterol, which increases your risk of heart disease and stroke. Fat flows through your bloodstream in little packages covered in protein, called lipoproteins; some are low density and some are high density. When your blood contains too much low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, the excess adheres to artery walls as plaque. It narrows the arteries and increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and heart attack. High-density lipoprotein -- HDL -- takes the excess LDL cholesterol back to your liver to be destroyed, which lowers your disease risk.

Alternatives to Saturated Fats

You can remove as much saturated fat from your diet as possible, but what's really going to make a difference to your disease risk depends on what you replace the saturated fat with. If you remove the saturated fat from your diet and replace it with carbohydrates, your disease risk doesn't decrease; it just changes. Loading up on carbohydrates increases the risk of becoming insulin resistant, which can lead to diabetes. Instead, replace the saturated fats in your diet with unsaturated fats from fish, nuts and vegetable oils as well as fresh fruits and vegetables.

About the Author

Lisa Coffman is a food and nutrition specialist based in Iowa. She has spent time working with the elderly in long term care, nutrition education for low income families and food intolerances and food allergies. She is currently finishing her Bachelor of Science in human food and nutrition from the University of Wyoming.

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